New Garbage Bins

This weekend, my region of East Rock received new garbage bins. We never filled our old blue 96 gallon tote, and I doubt we will fill our new black 48 gallon tote every week. The 96 gallon tote is now our recycling bin for all unsorted recyclables. Hopefully this change will do the following:

- Encourage my fellow New Havenites to recycle more.
- Reduce the amount of bottle scavenging that occurs every trash night.
- Make my recycling efforts easier (no sorting)

I have to admit that I am skeptical. One of the biggest waste components in residential areas is yard waste. On at least 5 instances this summer and fall, I've seen my garbage men (specifically the crew of truck 148) dumping my yard waste into my trash tote and then loading it into the same dumpster as all of my other trash. It's interesting that the only mention of yard waste in the New Haven recycling guide is that homeowners can pick up a do-it-yourself compost bin. While it's nice that this is free, the type of mesh bin they provide is wholly inadequate for turning more than 10% of my small lot's leaf and garden debris into compost. I remain unconvinced that New Haven is committed to actually reducing waste stream. I can't even gather from the officials where our yard waste goes. The best answer I've received is "a contractor." In Hamden, residents can pick up for free compost to enrich their garden soil. This could easily be sold for profit.

I've brought this issue to the attention of my alderman and several folks in the sanitation department. They always say they will look into it. As far as their looking is concerned, either they are blind or lost.

So hooray for a progressive recyclables policy, but come on New Haven! Follow the lead of Hamden, West Haven and others in the area and turn our yard waste into a quality product.

Photo taken from an 8/3/11 New Haven Independent story.

Bicycling New Haven

The Spring weather in New Haven is turning into a nice perk of being at Yale. It makes it incredibly easy to hop on my bicycle to commute and for errands. So in honor of Earth Day, I thought I'd post some critical elements of my bicycle commute that have helped me bike through all four seasons.

1. Get a bike that fits. If it hurts to bicycle, you won't do it! I'm 6'4" and weigh a sturdy 240 lbs BEFORE you account for the messenger bag that could carry one of my smaller co-residents! I shopped around for big boy commuter bikes and settled on a 25" Trek 7.3. I don't have to jack the seat up super high and I like how hybrid handlebars can let me ride home leisurely after overnight call and the frame lets me lean into rides for exercise. It's also very nice not to have to stop pedaling between standing and seated positions! So far it has helped me ascend both San Francisco's hills (when I spent a month working at the county hospital there) and the winter streets of New Haven without any problems. I got the factory model, which I'd probably do again, although I've had to tune the gears a few times and let my chain get too rusty through use on the heavily salted streets.

2. Find a safe route and stick to it. If you know your route like the back of your hand, you'll be familiar enough with traffic patterns, potholes and the more dangerous intersections to predict trouble spots. That way, you can also focus on ice spots, playing kids and other potential threats to your balance. I use the Orange St. bike lane until it ends and then the regular lanes until turning right on the sleepy Crown St. on my way in to the hospital. Several other bicyclists take this route so drivers are almost used to seeing us...

3. Secure your bicycle in a safe place. I got a key to the enclosed bike locker across the street from the hospital. I keep my lock there (NOT OCCUPYING A PRECIOUS STALL!) so that I don't have to lug it around. I park my bike in the same safe place every day and then walk to wherever I need on campus.

4. Find a shower at work. I've located 4-5 that I can use in a pinch. Not only is this useful if you sweat, but also if there is a downpour and you need to refresh. It also helps that my work uniform is always available in the form of a scrubs locker. Otherwise, you will need to bring in clothes. When I needed to wear a tie, I kept two pair of dress pants in my locker and carried my shirts in with me every day.

5. Waterproof packs, whether they be over the shoulder (hurts my back), saddle bags (not for me) or a full-on messenger backpack are vital. Otherwise you will worry about your clothes, papers or computer getting wet and you will break down and drive in.

6. Clothes are important, but you don't need to overdo it. I wear sweats with cheap rain gear or windbreakers as needed most of the year. Warm gloves are vital when it rains or when it's cold. In the summer, I'll don the biker shorts & suspenders, but then you run the risk of co-workers pointing out that you forgot to put on your pants as you walk in... But then again, I also wear a fluorescent reflective construction vest to draw drivers' attention to me.

7. Biking at night? You cannot have enough flashers or reflective tape and clothing. I'm up to 7 lights and am looking for more to clip on to my backpack clothing and helmet.

8. Be nice. I admit, I am an aggressive biker. But I observe traffic or pedestrian laws (whichever is more convenient), and only pedal between two lanes if it's clear I can cross with the walkers. Otherwise, if you ride in the road, observe the rules of the road. If drivers don't like that you are riding at the speed limit or with the flow of traffic, I'm always aware of an out should they try to run you off the road. And never assume that a driver sees you.

9. Learn about your bike. I can't true wheels, but I've tinkered with my rig enough (and watched people who know what they are doing) to do minor repairs. When in doubt, take it in to have a professional work on it. But if you need to do a quick fix, it helps you stay out of the car to know how to change a chain or adjust the shifter.

10. Have fun. I ride only to commute. But I live near East Rock Park, which has a challenging ascent. If I'm up for it, I'll divert to there on my way home. Or if you see a friend walking home, take the opportunity to stop and say hi. Having portable transportation makes interacting with your community easier!

Happy Earth Day from New Haven!

Thanks to my cousin-in-law for inspiring this post by asking me about my Robey-sized bicycle.

Worm Bin... Check!

This weekend, I finished constructing my vermiculture incubator. What is such a thing? Take away the academic language and you've got a worm bin. Vermicompost is an easy way to compost food scraps that doesn't throw off the balance of your outdoor yard waste compost. (If you are looking for a free outdoor compost set-up, look no farther than the City of New Haven Public Works at 34 Middletown Ave.) The best yard waste composts consist of 2/3 brown (carbon-rich) waste and 1/3 green (nitrogen-rich) waste. (What's brown and green? The EPA knows.) In the summer, most waste is green (trimmings, weeds, sod). Green waste includes kitchen waste like fruit scraps and coffee grounds.

If you still want to keep green kitchen waste out of the landfill, you can use worms. Worm bins are a fast and non-smelly way to generate a moderate amount of high quality compost from your kitchen scraps. The worms love to eat the bacteria that break down your (non-meat) food scraps. They burrow through watermelon rind like nobody's business and dig coffee grounds, corn husks, fruit scraps and even the occasional piece of produce gone bad. Since you bury the waste underneath the existing substrate, the smell that you've known escaping from your trash bin is not present. Sure, the bacteria are still there, but all you get is a musty fragrance of earth.

How do you keep worms happy? For one, not any old worm will do. You will need red wigglers, or the more difficult to find European earthworm. The worms in your back yard, while probably not native to North America, are neither of these. Those are probably of the variety known as dew worms or Canadian earthworms. What do the worms look like? They are characteristically red with yellow stripes. There's a good picture I took from the Yankee Worm website, which is actually a good place to get information about what you'll need to build a worm bin. All of the materials can be gathered from around the house. I recently ran out of duct tape, and didn't have hardware cloth, so had to buy thise items. So my grand total for this project was $7.91 and a couple hours of my time. And the worms? I joined my neighborhood's Freecycle community to find people who could give me a handful of their worms. I found two enthusiastic donors. Thanks Jean and Betsy! My do-it-yourself approach saved about $100 for the compost bin and $40-50 in worms. The make a bin .pdf at Yankee Worm is a pretty good guide, although I'm not sure how easy it will be to collect the worm castings at the end without spoiling the styrofoam peanuts. Since we have an abundance of peanuts from our move, I tried it anyway. Other guides use other ways to keep the worms from getting too soggy.

My worms are now hanging out in their cool dark corner of the basement munching on their first meal of kitchen scraps. I'll check in on them in a week to see if they need any more!